This invention relates generally to water dispensers for feeding small animals, and more particularly to an improved type thereof specifically adapted for feeding mice and rats.
Automatic feeding of drinking water to experimental animals is essential for labor-saving breeding of these animals and for providing a supply of drinking water at all times.
Among water dispensers for various small animals and birds, those for the mice and rats are technically most retarded, and almost none of the devices proposed heretofore have yet been accepted for general use. The reason for this is that a large number of water dispensers are required since mice and rats constitute a majority of the experimental animals. This requirement inevitably necessitates a simplified construction of water dispensers which can be produced at a substantially low cost. Despite this necessity for low-cost construction, however, requirements such as prevention of water leakage and provision of sensitivity in operation are more strict than those for the water dispensers for other animals and birds. These requirements arise from the requirement that the care of these animals be almost completely free of labor such as bed cleaning and drying and the requirement that the drinking water be readily supplied upon application of a weak nudging force of the mice and rats against a part of the water dispenser but can be instantaneously stopped upon removal of the same force with some water always kept in a part of the dispenser so that the animal can easily find the part to be nudged.